Duke Vin The Tickler, the original UK sound system operator, is dead. The legendary selector died after severe illness, presumably on sunday. His death hasn’t been covered in the press so far, but has been confirmed by companions and old friends of him.

Make sure not to miss this: Soul of the lion have produced a documentary on Jamaican sound system operator Cyril Braithewaite aka Count C, who recently passed away. Expect highly interesting interviews with the man himself, King Sporty and Ken Boothe. After having recommended many documentaries here that were sometimes only partly intersting, let me be clear: You gotta watch this one. Sadly, it is hardly longer than 5 minutes. How nice it would’ve been to hear more precious memories of these great artistes.
Waxpoetics #48 contains a piece on Count C (and one about Roots Reggae legend Yabby You), too. Or read more about Count C here. Via magnificent Dancecrasher.

Great documentary about Saxon Studio Sound and the legendary Sir Coxsone.

This film is a ruff cut history lesson with a difference, it is by no means the bible of the UK sound system, It doesn’t cover every facet of the sound system UK history, nor does it follow a timeline or chronology. What Two Big Sound does do, is uncover subjects rarely heard about in Black UK music history.

Interesting interview with Phillip Fraser on United Reggae describing aspects of life in Greenwich Town, and with a lot of great memories of Slim Smith, Bunny Lee, Echo Vibrations, and more.

Slim Smith had a babymother in Greenwich Town so he used to often be in Greenwich Town whereas Striker Lee used to live in Greenwich Farm and he was a big producer so all the artists used to come to Greenwich Farm. But Slim Smith was my idol because his babymother was my brethren’s sister so we used to be in the same yard.

Who cork the dance offers one amazing archive of recordings of old soundsystem sessions. Legendary sound systems Killamanjaro, King Tubby’s Home Town Hi Fi, Lord Tippatone Hi Fi, and Prince Jammys Hi Fi with DJs like Nicodemus, U Roy, Eek a Mouse, Ranking Joe and many more – what else do you need?Read more…

The Guardian about legendary DJ David Rodigan and some of his favourite tunes and albums. It must be a mistake, though, to call skinhead music “not cool”.

Catch A Fire – The Wailers
The first proper reggae album and, again, it’s got that historical context: “They brutalised our very souls.” I first heard it at college. I’d been slightly mocked by my peer group as ska had been cool in summer of 67 but wasn’t so cool when it became rocksteady, skinhead music. This album changed everything; fellow students saying, “Actually, you were right.” So I stuck a review of it up on the student noticeboard.

Translating JA soundsystem culture to London did not prove all that straightforward. Lloyd the Matador asked an electronics man named Fred to build him a modest 600 watt amp for Brixton’s Sir Coxsone Outernational sound. Fred became exasperated: “You must be fucking crazy. Do you know how much power it takes to drive a cinema? Ten watts!”

Random Quote

“a few drunken/stoned Jamaicans fooling around in a studio, riffing on the concept of “skinheads,” and trying to get the tape to the pressing plant quickly, before the trend was dead”source: Shit-fi.com